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First part of February was about Leadership in the life of a Hungarian Toastmaster. Now time has come to pay our attention to traditional speech competitions. Each year thousands of Toastmasters compete in the Humorous, Evaluation, Tall Tales, Table Topics and International speech contests. Competition begins with club contests and winners continue competing through the area, division and district levels.

Budapest Toastmasters’ International Speech Contest will take place on 17th March at CEU Business School (1023 Budapest, Frankel Leó út 34) at 18:30 pm. The Contest is a great opportunity for you to experience the spirit of a competition as a contestant or take one of the roles of the event, as Judge, Vote Counter, Timer. Should you have any question regarding the nomination or the details of the Contest, please contact our Contest Chair, David Tasnadi (d.tasnadi@gmail.com)

Budapest ExxonMobil Associates’ Toastmasters Club (B.E.A.T.) will organize its International Speech Contest on 26th February and a Speech Evaluation Contest on 6th March. They are also looking for volunteers for the roles of Judge, Vote Counter, Timer and would be happy if they could see you on one of the contests. If you are interested to take part as one of the above mentioned role takers, please contact Szabina Nagy (szabina.nagy@exxonmobil.com). International Speech Contest Date: 26th February 2014 Time: 11:30 am – 13:00 pm Place: Center Point – ExxonMobil (CP2B-418-420) 1139 Budapest 81-85 Vaci Street Speech Evaluation Contest Date: 6th March Time: 11:30 am – 13:00 pm Place: Center Point – ExxonMobil (CP2B-418-420) 1139 Budapest 81-85 Vaci Street.

Beside these exciting programs, our scheduled Monday and Tuesday meetings are going smoothly.
Last Monday, we have heard useful tips from David Tasnadi regarding how to prepare our suitcase and Nikoletta Lakatos convinced us, that it is worth stepping out of our comfort zone, while she shared some personal experience in this field. The Best Speaker Award went to Beatrix Pólya for her excellent Icebreaker speech about wearing high hills or not, in case you stand at the very end of the height line in the high school. Viktor Morandini (CC) guided the audience to the field of movies in the frame of Table Topic session.

Tuesday Skylark meeting was the event for Akos Barath to complete his Competent Communication Manual. He inspired the audience with his 10th speech “Innovation”. Attila Szigeti showed the way of vocal variety with his speech „Uups, I did it again” talking about a life-changing decision he made a year ago.

Do not forget, that tomorrow a new Toastmaster week will be started with lots of fun and interesting people, so it’s time to check Easyspeak (tmclub.eu) and register for the upcoming meetings and take roles for that!

Let us invite you to our Toastmasters Leadership Institue workshop on February 15th.

The Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) is a premier educational opportunity for Toastmasters’ club officers, as well as the membership at large. This one day event features officer training sessions to help officers be effective in carrying out his/her officer role. In addition, general communication and leadership skill-building educational workshops are offered for all who attend to assist members not only in their Toastmasters journey, but also in life as they speak and lead in their families, communities, and workplace.

Have you already scheduled the date of ourfirst Toastmaster workshop in 2014?

If yes, then you did a great job and see You on Monday.
If not, then it is time to do it and see You on Monday.

Location: CEU Business School (II. Frankel Leó út 30-34) at 6.30 pm.
The goal of the special leadership workshop is giving you lots of information about the Toastmasters Leadership Track. The Toastmaster of the evening will be Peter Temesvary, ACB. Among the events on the schedule: Jennifer Blanck will tell us about her road to become a DTM, which will be a unique experience for us, as she is the first DTM ever to be a member of our club. Bea Bincze, CC, CL, will talk about the practicalities of working toward the CL. Bea was BPTM’s first VP Leadership, and she’ll share her experience both from her own CL path and from an Exco/Area Governor perspective. We’ll also have Table Topics session – lead by Viktor Morandini – around the subject of Leadership.Let me share a thought provoking article with you about what Leadership is indeed.
On the link below, you can find the 100 best quotes on Leadership summarized by Forbes Magazine.http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/10/16/quotes-on-leadership/

December 9 – regular speeches + Elections & Voting on proposals, led by Elections Chair Atis Szabó CC. Nominations for Executive Committee roles as well as proposals are still possible (please submit them via email to szabo.attila@kephang.hu).

December 10 – regular morning meeting, roles available!

December 16 – Toastmasters Christmas party with all Hungarian clubs. Venue to be defined. Please save the date!

Club elections are coming up and it is time to nominate or get nominated for club officer roles. Please submit your nominations to Atis Szabó, CC, Elections Chair via email at szabo.attila@kephang.hu. Also, if you have any proposals regarding any change in the club regulations, please submit them in writing to Atis as well, stating your proposal and a few lines of detail. Nominations and proposals will be announced on 2nd December. The elections and voting about proposals will be held in the frame of the regular Monday meeting on 9th December at CEU. Please make sure to come and cast your votes.

What does it mean to be an officer in the club?

Officers are responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the club. The benefit of this voluntary work is that it gives leadership experience and credit in a supportive environment. Budapest Toastmasters Executive Committee (ExCo) consists of the following officer roles:

– President

(- Immediate Past President: no nominations can be made)

– Vice President Education

– Vice President Leadership

– Vice President Membership

– Vice President Public Relations

– Secretary

– Treasurer

– Sergeant at arms

– VP Mentoring

– VP Information Technology

Further information about the roles and the current officers can be found on the website.

As you know, the District level conference takes place as soon as this coming weekend, with Europe’s best Toastmasters competing against each other in Humorous speeches and Table Topics, and with educational workshops that can take your speaking skills to a higher level. Registrations are still open, participation fee is 130 Euros. Info at www.budapestlal.com and toastmasters.hu/lal .

The organizing team has a special request. Some of the Toastmasters who come to Budapest for the conference are still looking for couchsurfing hosts. Francoise, Ignacio, Indrani, Hristo, Marta, Uta and Peter are looking for friendly Hungarians with a spare couch in Budapest, in return for socializing. You do not have to participate on the conference to host someone, but of course that would double the fun. So what do you say, are you in for some networking? Write to travellingtoastmaster@gmail.com, and Hámori Eszter will support you.

As the weather is turning rainy and unfriendly, Toastmasters meetings are still warm and sunny. Come and see for yourself!

This Monday, we had a warm welcome from Ivett Molnár, and the meeting was spiced up with Table Topics by Katarina Bánfi. As for the speeches, Judit László shared some personal stories about body language, Ildikó Szilágyi advocated the use of personal wedding vows, and Zoltán Szrenkó recalled memories from the Budapest-Bamako rally. The Best Speaker award went to Judit, Best Evaluator to Júlia Szűcs, and Table Topics was won by Tamás Deák, who encouraged us to look for the right boss and leave the wrong one.

On Tuesday, a small yet enthusiastic crowd gathered in the coffee house, with Viki Sárkány’s second-time toastmastering, brilliantly navigating around the obstacles in her way. There were two speakers with two different passions: Gábor Pető was all about sailing, and Endre Szeghalmi broke the ice with his personal story about tango dancing. Endre was rewarded with the Best Speaker title, and Jennifer Blanck, DTM, doubled as Best Evaluator and Best Table Topics speaker, after explaining why travelling in business class is such a hassle (for fun, of course).

We encourage you to book your speech and roles for the next meetings. Interestingly, while in spring people were queueing for speech slots, and there was a 1-2-month waiting line, next week we still have plenty of opportunities open. If you need help using EasySpeak, please write to Gábor Klinger, CC, Vice President of IT (admin@budapesttoastmasters.org). The Monday meeting will be hosted by Tamás Deák, and Tuesday is yet looking for a host. Pick a role today to make sure the meetings run smoothly for everyone’s benefit and development. Access EasySpeak at tmclub.eu with your personal username and password, monitor the meeting schedule, and track your own CC and CL progress.

Do not forget to bring your Competent Leadership (CL) manual with you. It is much more fun if you get evaluated for the role you do, and collect credits on the way. The Leadership track in Toastmasters is designed to acknowledge your effort and to give you a feeling of pride about how much you have contributed and achieved.

Just one more note on giving and taking. We are very grateful to the CEU for providing us the Monday evening venue recently in the spacious 2nd floor room. In return, senior members from our club give presentation technique trainings to CEU students, with one of those sessions having happened this week. Bea Bincze, CC, Veró Tóth, CC, Atis Szabó, CC, and Dani Faragó, ACB, the club is grateful for your efforts.

Having saved the best for last, here comes the big news: The District Conference is landing in Budapest in just 10 days! Make sure you check out continental Europe’s winners in Humorous speeches and Table Topics, not only in English, but also in German and French. In addition, there will be exciting workshops with tips & tricks for improving your public speaking skills and making an impact. Finally, come and watch how the keynote speaker, John Zimmer, seven-time Europe champion, mesmerizes the audience. The motto of the conference is “Laugh and Learn”, which is a promise in itself. Date of the District Conference is November 15-16-17th, and the venue is ELTE University Campus “Gólyavár” building at Astoria in Budapest (Múzeum körút 4-6-8.).

Please register online now, as the opportunity for buying a ticket on the spot is not guaranteed! By the way, did you know that several members of the Budapest Club have a key role in organizing this major international event? Headed by Hans Peterson, CC ALB, the team includes Veró Tóth, CC, Bea Bincze, CC, Ildikó Szilágyi, Niki Lakatos, Eszter Hámori, Judit László, Kata Szilvási, Henry Scullion, Gábor Klinger, CC, Balázs Gergely and András Lukács, as well as members from other Hungarian clubs and even one from Bratislava.

We have some good news to share. First of all, congratulations to Viktor Morandini, CC, who represented Hungary on the Division level contest with his humourous speech this last weekend, and took the silver-medal 2nd place! Second, we warmly welcome our Hungarian-speaking sister club, Pestbeszéd as a newly registeredclub, No. 3461223. As before, their meetings are held on Thursdays from 18.30 at Kaptár Office.

Next, a call from the District Conference organizing team: Would you like to make friends and have fun with four hundred Toastmasters from all over Europe on your doorstep in Budapest? Yes,the November District Conference is fast approaching. This is a unique opportunity to meet this many Toastmasters in Budapest as it is the last District Conference before our District is split into two smaller districts in 2014. Meet and greet Europe’s most entertaining Toastmasters, giving speeches in English, German and French. Don’t miss it! Registration and programme details on budapestlal.com. We are also looking for people who can host a visiting Toastmaster for one to three nights during the conference. Show them the best of Budapest! Contact Eszter Hamori if you can help: travellingtoastmaster@gmail.com. Conference date: November 15-16-17th, location: ELTE Gólyavár at Astoria.

Looking back at this week, we had several inspiring speeches and fun table topics. On Monday, three very experienced speakers competed against each other, with speeches from different advanced manuals. Barnabás Szilágyi, ACS, talked about how an achievement also entails some sacrifice in the background, Club President Eszter Farnady, CC, advocated for the online registration platform EasySpeak, and Immediate Past President Attila Szabó, CC, entertained with a personal story of drama and humour. The result: an absolute tie between speakers! Table Topics evolved around brand marketing, and was won by the pair Viktor Morandini and Ashraf Sadek. US Toastmaster Joel Schanker, DTM, visited our club, as part of his short stay in Budapest. (Thank you for the summary to Ildikó Szilágyi.)

This past Tuesday the Skylarks had a salubrious meeting (yes, that was the word of the day, thanks to Grammarian Tamas Lippner). Gabor Peto tried his hand at being the Toastmaster for the first time, and he pulled it off magnificently. Afterwards he even admitted how much he enjoyed it! Timea Klebercz gave her Icebreaker, telling us about her experiences participating in parliamentary debate over the past few years, and Viki Sarkany gave a very heartfelt evaluation of Timea’s speech. Table Topics Master Gabor Klinger, CC, challenged the members to present their startup business ideas and convince a forum of investors to support their venture. We had three Toastmasters guests, Leslie and Ron from Seattle (Leslie won the Table Topics round), and Judit who has attended Toastmasters in Bucharest. Next week Gabor Klinger will be the Toastmaster, and Viki Sarkany will give her 7th speech. (Thank you for the summary to Peter Temesvary, ACB.)

See you again next week,Your Budapest Toastmasters Executive Committee

Division D Fall Conference in Vienna is just behind the door and that means that I am sending you general information you could need! There are many things you can look forward to, because this conference will be full of great speakers, many interesting people and a lot of useful information!

Note that Mariahilfer Strasse is Vienna’s main shopping street, so driving there on Saturday is rather crazy.

Accomodation:

Couchsurfing option will be regrettably unavailable, so all of you who are planning to stay overnight in Vienna, please BOOK A HOSTEL/HOTEL. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Payment:

The fee depends on when you have registered on our official website.

It’s payable in cash (euros only) at the registration desk on arrival.

Early bird registration : 20 EUR (until 6th of October)

Normal registration: 25 EUR (until 18th of October)

On-site registration: 30 EUR

Program:

09:15 Registration

10:00 Opening of contests

10:05 CZ humorous speech + TT contest

11:40 DE TT contest

12:00 Lunch Break

13:00 Workshop Priti Coles – “be seen, be heard, be real”

13:40 EN TT contest

14:30 Workshop Jenny Simanowitz – “Happy business”

15:15 Coffee & Cakes break

15:30 Keynote Speech

15:45 EN humorous speech contest

16:50 DE humorous speech contest

17:30 Announcing results

18:00 Closing

Contests:

Each Area sends one representative in each of the contests, so look forward to contestants from CZ, SK, HU and AT. [Note from the Division Governor: Both Czech and Slovak speaking contestants will compete in Czech contests]

Vienna’s Toastmaster Clubs have arranged for a special guest session & demo meeting. So be prepared to talk with non-Toastmasters and show your enthusiasm.

– It is useful to report and share what we heard, what we saw and how it made us feel – to be able to do this, we need to be good listeners. To listen carefully it might be useful to take notes to keep our full focus on the speaker and on the speech. It will become a story, not a shopping list.

–Evaluation is a speech/presentation. Though it is short, it should still have an opening, 3-4 main points and a conclusion.

– Feedback should be just-in-time, immediately following the speech/action so that we share our first impressions and do not ’rationalise’/modify/extenuate our feedback afterwards.

–Objectivity vs. subjectivity: We need to give factual feedback including specific points (for instance we can cite words and expressions, give examples from the speech). Moreover, our view/emotions and feelings should be attached to these and the impact the observed facts had on us. Feedback and evaluation should be subjective anyway.

– We have to address the audience too, not only the evaluee – give specific feedback to the speaker and then extrapolate for the wider audience.

– Eye contact with not only the speaker but also with the whole audience can back this up (include everyone) as well as comments/tips given to the audience within the evaluation.

– It might be worth trying to talk about the evaluee in third person singular (e.g. Béla did this and that and I liked it when he…) so that not only the evaluee is directly ‘targeted’.

– All other role-takers should give their report in the format of a speech: ah counter, timer, GE, etc.

-It can help to learn more about the speaker and the speech in advance the topic, to be better prepared for evaluation.

– Challenge of the short time available for evaluation (2.5 min in TM) – prioritise and include the rest in the written feedback.

– In case of a personality clash between the speaker and evaluator, it is useful to divorce from personal feelings and give constructive feedback.

– It is OK to let go of the ‘Sandwich technique’:

– Try this technique to improve your feedback but feel free to abandon ‘good and bad’ or criticism; frame/phrase it as constructive – what went well and what could have gone better.

– Focus mainly on what you liked and the strengths of the speaker since they can be further improved;

– Be encouraging;

– The word ’BUT’ tends to block the positive that may have gone before it.

– We should ask to be evaluated as evaluators to improve – it is encouraged to ask for feedback.

– To help the speaker even more:

– The evaluator could take a look at previous evaluation projects in the manual and observe the points that have been highlighted several times – to build on what was said before.

– The evaluator could ask the speaker in advance what specific things to focus on, what they wish to improve.

–To be able to improve at giving feedback and evaluation – just do it: sign up for this role in TM!!! 🙂

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